Show Us Your Gate!

The forge build is getting closer and closer to completion.  The last month has seen Ian beavering away making a huge set of entrance doors we can lock at night so no one with light fingers will run away with ‘Bertha’ our biggest baddest anvil (I’d like to see them try!).

Entrances are a big deal for blacksmiths, you’ll be pushed to find one who hasn’t made a gate, archway or doorknocker at some point in their career. Nevertheless, most gates these days are made by fabricators (or metal gluers as we like to call them). The difference is that blacksmiths bend pieces of steel into scrolls and curls at temperatures over 1000 degrees Celsius and joint them using heat (that’s called forge welding) or rivets, but fabricators bend them while they’re still cold and use electric welders to join the pieces together. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that but you’d only need to come to one of our blacksmithing classes to be able to spot the difference between a fabricated gate and a traditionally hand forged one from a mile off. God lies in the details and forged gates have a lot more well……details.

However they’ve been made, I’ve become fascinated with the immense variation in the patterns found in garden gates in my little patch of East London. Despite generally sticking to just a few basic shapes there are barely two alike. 

Wherever you are why don’t you tweet a picture of your gate to @ucf_crafts #showusyourgate

EMF Camp 2016

Here is preliminary schedule for for this years blacksmithing at EMF We sell out quickly so get booking now.  Only £20pp!  More times may be added

Day	Time	Places
Friday	14 - 15:30	10
	16 - 17:30	10
	18 - 19:30	10
	20 - 21:30	5
Saturday	08 - 09:30	5
	10 - 11:30	10
	12 - 13:30	10
	14 - 15:30	10
	16 - 17:30	10
	18 - 19:30	10
	20 - 21:30	5
Sunday	08 - 09:30	5
	10 - 11:30	10
	12 - 13:30	10
	14 - 15:30	10
	16 - 17:30	10

A Hands on Way to Help Build Self Esteem

Hi All,

This month UCF director and fundraiser Mike Daligan shares his thoughts on the foundation.

I have spent more years that I can remember knowing that I had more about me than I thought I had. This coupled with a defensive arrogance that I used as a shield. It wasn’t a good way to achieve anything and, even when I did, it was as if it was someone else who actually did it. Yet, inside, I wasn’t unaware of the reality. Unfortunately, the result was that it has taken me until much later in life to do many of the things that I could, and should, have done much earlier. Along the way, however, I’ve been involved in a great many interesting projects on which others have achieved beyond their dreams.

Most notable in these have been projects where people who were homeless and unemployed built their own homes as well as a number of city farms and other community organisations. It was at one of these that I first worked with a couple of Artists/Blacksmiths and the idea of the Urban Crafts Foundation was first mooted. That initial meeting was some eight years ago and it led, eventually, to the setting up of the Foundation. Fast forward another two years and the Foundation is now established, albeit in metal storage containers, at Lambourne End Centre for Outdoor Learning near Chigwell in Essex. From this base, it has now embarked on another long journey at the end of which it plans to have its own building housing a number of crafts for its users and visitors. The aim is to set these within a community garden cum horticultural area to complete the project. So, what has my introductory paragraph got to do with these plans? 

We, it’s because the Foundation is a new Community Interest Company which will work with those who are unemployed, schools, community groups and others who wouldn’t normally get this opportunity. The aim is to provide them with a practical, “hands on” experience as the precursor to building their confidence. Witnessing this at work, for example, blacksmiths at a school for children with special needs is to be convinced of the value of this work.

It may be the simple nature of the process of heating and shaping a piece of metal or the immediacy with which this can be accomplished. It may also be the fact that a simple artefact can be created in a very short space of time. Whatever it is, it generates an interest and a sense of achievement that can be built upon.

So, if you’re a teacher who wants to see how the forge can help your children or a company wanting your staff to experience something different, why not give us a call? We think that you’ll be please with the result. 

Our Education Programe is up and running!!

So Lambourne End's Alternative Provision Prospectus is now out.  Here is our bit:

Who are the faces behind the online image @ UCF?

         

Hi There:)

Richard Pace

Name:  Richard Pace

Sex: Male

Age: 40ish

Place of birth:  England

Job:  Blacksmith,  Mains Water Leakage Detection Technician

Pets Name:  Bully Cat

Partner:  Lizzie

Children:  Only other peoples – you can give ‘um back:)

Favourite Sport:  Rallying

Childhood Hero:  Hannu Mikkola & Dimi Mavropoulos

Teenage Crush:  Michele Mouton

Hobbies:  Apart from blacksmithing;  reading historical fact and fiction, visiting historical sites and visiting art galleries

What animal would you be and why:  I would like to say Tiger, the strong silent type  but others may disagree!

What is UCF to you:  Blacksmithing - I love it!  My dream job.  UCF   gives me the opportunity to keep this ancient craft alive and bring to the attention of others.  I find it very therapeutic and want others benefit from this as well.

Lizzie Hughes

Name: Lizzie

Sex: Female

Age: 42

Place of birth: Bangor

Job: Lots

Pets Name: Bully Cat

Partner: Don’t be nosy

Children: Definitely not

Favourite Sport: Knurr and Spell

Childhood Hero: I didn’t really have one

Teenage Crush: Or one of these (I’m not very good at this)

Hobbies: Knitting, sewing and metal bashing

What animal would be and why: A tapir. They’re well cool.

What is UCF to you: An opportunity to pass on my skills to others.

Mike Daligan

Name:  Mike

Gender:  Male

Age:  73

Place of Birth:  Surrey Docks

Job:  Writer, Motivational Speaker, Coach and Community

Development Consultant

Pet Name:  None

Partner:  Yes

Children:  Yes

Favourite Sport:  Running

Childhood Hero:  None

Teenage Crush:  Some girl whose name I can’t remember

Hobbies:  Celebrating being alive

What animal would you be & why:  I already am an animal

What is UCF to you:  A worthwhile organisation that needs to succeed.

Ian Lowe

Name:  Ian S. Lowe

Sex: if you mean gender I’m male

Age: 41

Place of birth: Pontefract (where they make liquorice cakes)

Job: Volunteer Blacksmith

Pets Name: No pets

Partner: No partner

Children: No children

Favourite Sport: Don’t have one

Childhood Hero: Didn’t have any hero’s

Teenage Crush: Terri Hatcher (the Superman years especially)

Hobbies: None – I’m a blacksmithing geek!

What animal would be and why: Wolf. It’s on my family’s coat of arms

What is UCF to you: The chance to show people the skills that originally built our society.  How learning any of those skills can show what is or is not impossible